Letter: Bridge tragedy speaks to funding need

Friday

Dec 15, 2017 at 12:01 AMDec 15, 2017 at 6:46 AM

Today, Dec. 15, marks the 50th anniversary of a tragic event that changed how our nation ensures bridge safety. On that date in 1967, the Silver Bridge over the Ohio River, connecting Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio, collapsed, resulting in 46 individuals losing their lives from this catastrophe.

This event led to the establishment of the National Bridge Inspection Standards (NBIS), which require all bridges with a span of at least 20 feet to be inspected at least once every two years. Not long after this, Ohio legislators took these requirements a step further by passing a law requiring all bridges at least 10 feet in length to be inspected annually.

Today, more than 43,000 bridge-inspection reports are signed each year by professional engineers to ensure Ohioans’ safety. The challenge for infrastructure in Ohio, which has the second-highest inventory of bridges in the country, is the continuing need to find additional revenue to pay for repairs and replacement of structures. In Ohio, approximately 2,000 bridges are considered structurally deficient.

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The American Society of Civil Engineers released its 2017 national Infrastructure Report Card, which assigned a grade of “C+“ to our nation’s bridges. The federal gas tax, 18.4 cents per gallon, and Ohio’s gas tax, 28 cents per gallon, have not been adjusted since 1993 and 2006, respectively. The state, counties and municipalities rely on this income to fund much-needed bridge and road projects. Inflation, increased fuel efficiency, and more hybrid and electric vehicles have led to flat revenue streams for most of these agencies.

Congress continues to transfer money from other sources to keep solvent the Highway Trust Fund, the main source to fund federal projects. Much discussion during last year’s election cycle called for a need to improve our nation’s infrastructure. So far, neither party has produced a substantial proposal that led to serious discussion. In May, Reps. Sam Graves, R-Missouri and Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-District of Columbia, sent a letter to the House Ways and Means committee asking that any efforts regarding tax reform should also consider ways to address the highway trust fund with sustainable revenue sources.

This letter was co-signed by 253 bipartisan members of Congress — nine from Ohio, including Reps. Steve Stivers, R-Upper Arlington and Joyce Beatty, D-Jefferson Township. Unfortunately, neither the House nor Senate versions of tax reform addresses ways to fix the issues facing the Highway Trust Fund.

A ceremony was planned for Friday in Point Pleasant to commemorate the anniversary of the event and recognize the families of those who lost their lives 50 years ago. Federal and state elected officials from Ohio and West Virginia were expected to attend. The Federal Highway Administration and Ohio acted quickly to establish the NBIS. We now need elected officials at all levels to be proactive in providing increased and sustainable funding to fix and repair our roads and bridges so as to avoid another Silver Bridge tragedy.